Apparatus for canning



F. P. McCQLL AND W. W. WILLISON.

APPARATUS FOR CANNING.

APPLICATION FILED lAN- 7, 1919.

1,345,380. V Patented uly 6,1920,

' 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1. E 36? g 34 27 ATTORNEY F- P. McCQLL AND W. W. WILLISON.

APPARATUS FORCANNING.

APPLICATION. FILED 1M. 7, 191.9.

Patented July 6, 1920.

' 2 swans-swan 2.

$ F GMNVENTOR ATTORNEY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANCIS r. moon, or mnoEWOOn, N W JERSEY, Ann WALTER WILLIAM wnmrson, OF NEW YORK, 1v. 1., -nssrenoas TO THERMOKEPT rnonuo'rs CORPORATION, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A conrom'rroiv OF-MAINE.

APPARATUS FOR GANNING.

Specification Letters Patent.

Patented July 6, 1920.

Applicationfiled January 7, 1919. Serial NO. 270,095."

To all whom it may concern Be,it known that we, FRANCIS P. MeCoLL,

' a citizen of Canada, and a resident of Ridge:

Wood, in the county of Bergen and State of New Jersey, and WALTER WILLIAM WIL- LISON, a citizen of theUnited States, and a resident of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have jointly invented a certain new and useful Apparatus for Canning, of which the following is a specification.

Our invention relates to preserving food by what is commonly called canning.

More particularly our invention relates to canning food by first withdrawing the occluded air from the article to be canned so that air cannot chemically act upon the article canned to cause it to ferment, become rancid, or otherwise deleteriously affect it as a fresh and wholesome article of food.

More particularly our invention relates to treatmg and canning vlscous alimentary substances, or substances which can be'- stices in the alimentary substances before it is fed into the receptacles to be hermetically sealed.

Our invention further relates to drawing the viscous alimentary substance from a reservoir into the vacuum kettle or chamber by the vacuum which removes substantially in which a is all its occluded air.

Our invention further relates to the apparatus and also to the canned article.

It is well known that if a viscous alimentary substance, such as butter, butter substitute, lard, or' any similar alimentary substance, is cannedunder ordinary atmospheric pressure the. occluded air will in a very short time oxidize or chemically react on the alimentary substance and render it.

rancid, sour, and unwholesome. Thisac-.

tion, of course, is hastened if the can is subjected 'to heat corresponding to summer heat, or any other higher temperature.

In the case of butter, which; has been canned under ordinary atmospheric pressure, it is well known that itwill deteriorate and its structure will change even though this deterioration has not progressed to rancidity. As it deteriorates an action takesplace which makes it taste oily and materially reduces its salability although the deterioration has not progressed to the point of rancidity.

By our invention we insure that a viscous alimentary substance be "it butter, butter substitute, lard, or anyothersimilar material, will be kept in its original, sweet and wholesome condition. 4

To insure perfect results we use a high vacuum preferably not less than about 28 inches, usually about 29, or as near 30 inches I. as we can obtain it.

Various mechanisms maybe used to carry out our improved method. For purpose of description we have shown one form of apparatus whereby our method may be carried out, portions of the apparatus being somewhat diagrammatic. I

In the accompanying drawing the same reference numerals refer to similar parts intheseveral figures. v

Figure 1 is a vertical: section throu h a vacuum kettle, reservoir, the receptac cm which the alimentary food substance is to be canned and a yielding platform.

larger scale.

Fig. 3 is a cross-section-On line ,'3 Fig. 2. i 4 is a fragmentary view 1n vertical.

Fi secti n, the same'as Fig. 1, but showing the alimentary substance compressed into a solid mass and being forced into cans.

Fig. 5 is a vertical section of a filled rece tacle about to be hermeticallysealed.

' ig. 6 is a vertical section of a tin can such as shown in Fig. 5 hermetically sealed. F Fig. 7 is a horizontal section onlme 7, 7

F or purposes of description we will'describe our inventionas applied 'totreatingand canning butter. The butter 1 is put into a reservoir2, of any suitable capacity 'Fig. 2 is a detail vertical section on a.

as for example of about pounds, though 'end a by a nut 16. On the other end of the shaft 14 is secured a cam plate 17 by means of the screw 18. This plate 17 is provided with a of course this may be varied without departing from our invention. This reservoir 2 is preferably placed above the vacuum kettle or chamber?) and communicates with it V manner as by a crank (not shown). Within this hollow head 11 of the piston 10 is rotatably mounted a shaft 14 carrying on one plate '15 which is secured to the shaft slot 19, Fig. 3, which cooperates with a spline 20 secured to the housing 9.

7 When the reservoir 2 is charged, the piston 10 is operated by the pinion 13 and rack 12 soas to raise the piston to the top of the vacuum kettle 3. Near the top of the housing 9 the spline 20 is curved or-formed at an angle so that as the plate 17 reaches this portion'of the spline it will'ca-use the shaft 14 to be partially rotated, sufiicient to remove the plate 15 from the opening 21, in the piston 10. This is the position of the parts in Fig. 1. By then operating the valve 22 leading to the vacuum pump (not shown) the air will be exhausted from the vacuum kettle 3. When a sufliciently high vacuumhas been obtained therein the butter 1 will be drawn or sucked through the openings 8, 8. in the plate 7, through the opening 5 in the cap 6, and through the opening 21 in the plunger 10. The butter, then, enters the vacuum kettle 3 in a finely divided state, its

exact condition depending upon the size and contour of the openings 8, 8. These perfora-- tions 8, 8 may be of any form. Preferably they are such that the butter will be fed or into the vacuum kettle 3 in the form of sheets, or, in the .form, of cylinders, in which latter case their appearance would not be unlike. macaroni.

As these sheets or cylinders of. butter, or-

otherviscous alimentary substance, are fed Into the vacuum chamber 3, substantially all of their occluded air is removed by a high vacuum, poreferably not less than28' inches, usually a ut 29, or as near 30 as can be-obtained." p

' After the butter has been drawnfrom the reservoir 2 into the vacuum kettle 3, or the vacuum kettle 3 has become filled with sheets of cylinders 23 of butter, thepinion 13 is operated so as to move the rack 12 and with it the piston 10. The first downward movement of the piston 10 will cause the plate '17 .following the curved portion of the spline v20 to partially rock the shaft 14: which will cause the plate 15 to close the opening 21 in the piston. By further operating the pinion 13, the piston will move down in the vacuum kettle 3 and will compress the butter, or other viscous alimentary substance, 50' as to close'the interstices in said sub-- stanceand form 1t into .a compact mass as shown in Fig. 4. This'compression is per formed in the vacuum kettle while the contents are still under the high vacuum.

After the butter 1, 'or any similar alimentary' substance, has become compressed to the required extent, Fig. 4, the valve 22 is closed cutting out the vacuum pump and the valve 24: is opened to break the vacuum in the vacuum chamber."

The lower end of this vacuum chamber is provided with anozzle 25 which will be sufiicient size to snugly fit the receptacles 26 in which the butter, or similar alimentary.

substance, is to be canned. These receptacles are preferably'tin cans 26. Before the butter is admitted into the vacuum chamber and before the vacuum -pump is turned on, one of these tin cans 26 is-placed over the nozzle 25 so as to seal said nozzle. While the alimentary substance is being vacuumized the atmospheric pressure will keep the tin can 26 upon the nozzle 25 and hold-it there I while the contents are-being compressed by the piston 10. Preferably we also employ a platform 27' to vyieldingly hold the tin can 26 on the nozzle by means of the spring 28. After the butter, or other alimentary sub stance, has been compressed, and the vacuum broken by operating the valve 24, the tin cans 26 are filled to within about three eighths of an inch of the top of the cans by having the operator operate the pinion 13 which will force the compressed alimentary I substance into the cans 26. When the operator sees that the top' of the can 29 registers with the, point. 30 on the nozzle he stops operating the pinion 13 as thecan will then be-filled to about threef eighths of an inch;-

from its top. He then'presses the can down against the action of the spring platform 27 andgives it a twisting movement so as to cut the butter and replaces the filled can 26' with an empty can. he process of filling is continued until all of the compressed and treated butter has been placed in the cans 26.

To permit the more ready separation of the butter in the cans from the butterleft in the nozzle 25 we preferably mount in the end of the nozzle cros bars 31, 31 which serve to cut the butter when the can is given a partial rotation in withdrawing it from the nozzle 25. v

' The cans are then fed into a vacuum cannmg machine where the metal caps 32 are crimped upon them in the ordinary wellknown manner, while the contents of the can are again sub ected to a high vacuum of from 28 to 30 inches. The small space of three-eighths of an inch at the top of the can, which space may vary for the particular size can used, is simply to permit the cover 32 to be hermetically sealed on the cans without disturbin the contents.

After all the butter 1n the vacuum kettle has been canned the pinion 13 is operated to raise the piston 19. At its upper extreme movement the plate 15 will be slightly rocked so as to free the opening 21 to permit additional butter to be drawn into the vacuum kettle in the manner just described.

It will be seen that by our method we remove substantially all the occluded air from the viscous alimentarysubstance while it is in a finely divided state, then compress it in the vaccum so as to close its interstices, in which compressed condltion 1t 1s put into cans. Further, that the air has no opportunity to work into the mass of the substance in the cans before they are put throu h the vacuum canning machine where the a imentary substance is again subjected to a high vacuum-before it is hermetically sealed.

To insure that the butter will pass uniformly through the openings 8, 8 we pref-' erably place above it a plunger 33 which fits closely to the sides'of the reservoir 2. We also preferably connect this plunger 33 with a rod 3 1 which carries the top 35,. which seats'upon the reservoir when the plunger is at the bottom of the reservoir.

If it is necessaryto heat the butter, butter substitute, lard, or any similar alimentary substance to make it viscous, we may pass steam or warm water through the jacket 36 by operating the valve 37. The heating medium may be permitted to flow from the jacket 36 around the reservoir 2 to the jacket 38, around the vacuum kettle 3 by operating the valve 39 in the connection 40. The jacket mag be drained by operating the valve 41.

av'ing thus described our invention to the details of which we donot desire to be limited, what is claimed as new and what 'it is desired to secure by Letters Patent is set forth in the appended claims.

What we claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. In a vacuum apparatus the combination ofa vacuum kettle a reservoir for the article to be treated and means to permit the article to be drawn or sucked from the reservoir into the vacuum kettle by the vacuum maintained in said kettle.

2. In a vacuum apparatus the combination of a vacuum kettle a reservoir for the article to be treated and means to permit the article to be drawn or sucked from the reservoir into the vacuum kettle b the vacuum maintained in said kettle, an means to compress FRANCIS P. MGCOLL. WALTER WILLIAM WILLIS ON.

Witnesses:

CHRYs'rINE GLASER, HANNAH J osarn. 

